Look Out Kid, It’s Something You Did

As with the Gates incident, there are two stories here, and the media are picking up on only one. Everyone’s asking: why didn’t this police officer know who Bob Dylan was? Nobody’s asking: regardless of whether he was Bob Dylan or Bob the Builder, what right did this police officer have to demand his papers and force him into her car when there was no evidence of his having violated any law?

I think Shatner did a very good job acting in that flick. So did Pauline Kael. Nick Meyer said he got a good performance out of him by making him do so many takes that he got bored, and it became more naturalistic.

The moment the police officer decided she would take him in, were Bob Dylan to resist in any way, she could then (by the book) charge him with “disorderly conduct” and “resisting arrest.” U.S. police powers applied ad hoc are laughably circular in justification.